He Didn't Want to Die
by Periwinkle Dwarves
Summary: Have you ever thought about what Cedric was thinking when he was killed for nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Well in this tory I cover Cedric's POV during the 3rd Task and his death in the graveyard. In honor of the 31 HP's b-day!


**HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY POTTER! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO ROWLING! Is what we should all be saying right now because, yes, it is the sacred day we know as July 31st. Now I wrote this story in honor of HP's b-day and your probably thinking 'shouldn't it be about Harry then?' Well what fun is it writing about him? We read seven whole long books about him that were completely wonderful so I don't think we need to poke around in Harry's mind anymore. Plus finding little things that no one else ever writes and writing them yourself are always fun! Branch out amigo's and shed some light on places that are dark and dusty in the back of our story filled minds!**

**Disclaimer: Characters, story line, and speech belong to Jo Rowling**

**The paragraph in bold is taken straight from the Goblet of Fire.**

Cedric Diggory was a lot of things. He was kind and brave. He was strong and loyal. But right now he was scared, terrified even, for his life. He sprinted through the dark green hedges that covered what used to be the Quidditch Pitch, this was the Third Task.

The final Task in the Triwizard seemed easier than the first two, at least that's what he had though before he entered the maze. Now, after meeting millions of strange spells and one large and angry Blast-Ended Skroot, he didn't know where to go. He just took random passages, occasionally pulling out his wand and whispering "Point Me!" to it so that he could find his way to the middle.

Then he heard footsteps behind him, spinning to meet the person head on he kept his wand down at his side knowing he couldn't curse any of the other champions. Krum emerged from the shadows, his dark face facing Cedric who saw that his eyes seemed strangely blank. Krum seemed to be contemplating something then he raised his wand and said gruffly, "_Crucio_!"

Cedric felt at first only denial and surprise then some sort of self-preservation intinct kicked in and he threw himself to the side. The spell hit the hedge the same time he hit the dirt floor.

"What are you doing?" he yelled at Krum. "What the hell d'you think you're doing?"

The only answer was another "_Crucio_!"

This time he was unable to move before the fast moving curse hit him. Pain worse than he had ever even imagined burst through him, alighting every single vein and pore of his body on fire. He screamed and screamed unable to stop the fierce yells from coming. They were ripped from his vocal cords, making his throat go raw and painful and he was only aware of thrashing and writhing on the ground, crying out, then the pain suddenly lifting and footsteps as Krum tried to run away.

"_Stupefy_!" yelled a younger voice from behind him, and with a flash of red light Krum crumbled to the ground, unconsious.

Cedric curled into a ball, pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes, panting, as he tried to forget the aching that was left from the intense pain of that Unforgivable Curse. He felt hands grab his forearm.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked, eyes shadowed with surprise and worry.

"Yeah," Cedric was able to gasp out. "Yeah. . . . I don't believe it . . . he crept up behind me. . . . I heard him, I turned around, and he had his wand on me. . . ."

Cedric pulled himself painfully to his feet as Harry stepped back, he didn't even try to hide his trembling.

"I can't believe this . . . I thought he was alright," Harry said, looking over at Krum's motionless figure.

Cedric shook his head. "So did I," What could have possessed him to do such a thing? That spell was illegal for God's Sake! Though maybe not at his school, Cedric's dad had told him to watch out for the Durmstrang Champion because he was bound to have some nasty tricks up his sleeve. "That school has always dabbled in the Dark Arts, they don't really encourage it but they never discourage it either." Dad had said.

"Did you hear Fleur scream earlier?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, you don't think Krum got her too?"

"I don't know," said the fourteen year old softly. Cedric just seemed to notice he looked just as beat up and weary as he felt. Harry's black hair was even messier than usual, his round glasses askew, and grass stains were rubbed along his back and side.

"Should we leave him here?" Cedric said abruptly, thinking it would serve him right.

"No," said Harry. "I reckon we should send up red sparks. Someone'll come and collect him . . . otherwise he'll probably be eaten by a skrewt."

"He'd deserve it," Cedric muttered, while sighing and raising his wand above his head and shooting a spray of brilliant red sparks in the air. He watched them hang there in the sky like new bloody editions to the stars, above Krum's body.

He glanced at Harry awkwardly, wanting to thank him but thinking it might not be the right time. "Well . . . I s'pose we'd better go on. . . ."

"What?" Harry muttered. "Oh . . . yeah . . . right . . . "

They walked on in silence until Cedric took a right turn and Harry went on down a left one. Cedric now held his wand firmly in front of him, faintly wondering if it really was just him and Harry left in this competition. He had an long uneventful walk for a while until, he came to a fork. He stared at each one biting his lip in contemplation then became aware of a faint silvery glow emitting from one.

Could that be the cup? It had to be close. . . . Cedric took a few tentative steps in the right fork and when nothing happened he continued on at a quicker and quicker pace. He brightened as he hurtled into a new path and saw in front of him _the cup_. He sprinted as fast as he could, his breath coming out in sharp puffs, only vaguely aware of something coming into his path, something large.

"Cedric!" a voice wailed behind him. "On your left!"

Cedric spun and with a sharp yell hurled himself away from the path of the humongous spider. He tripped on one of the hedges roots though as he did so, and ended up slamming into the ground once more tonight. This time he watched his wand fly from his hand.

"_Stupefy_!" Harry cried again behind him, trying in vain to stop the spider from reaching Cedric, but only ended up in making the spider madder and heading for him. "_Stupefy_! _Impedimenta_! _Stupefy_!"

Cedric, who was now on his hands and knees feeling around for his wand frantically, looking over just in time to see Harry be lifted up into the air by the spider. He struck out with his leg and cried out in pain as he connected with the pinchers. Cedric finally found his wand, and he lifted it with a triumphant air. He pointed it at the spider and bellowed, "_Stupefy_!" over and over again trying to get it to release Harry. No luck.

Harry was able to release himself by using expelliarmus but Cedric winced as the boy flew through the air and landed, with a hard thud, on the ground. Once more Cedric tried to stupefy the spider, and this time he was glad to see it work as it combined with Harry's own spell. The spider keeled over, flattening one of the hedges. Fear stabbed at Cedric.

"Harry!" he yelled, in panic, what if the spider fell on him? "You all right? Did it fall on you?"

"No," he heard a weak voice call back much to his relief. Cedric watched as Harry used the hedge to claw his way into a standing position, as his leg was mangled and bleeding into his ripped robes. Cedric himself was only a few tempting feet from the Triwizard Cup, but he wouldn't take it. Not now, when he knew it belonged to Harry, who had saved him three times now during this whole year.

"Take it, then," Harry gasped, wincing as he stared at his leg, which was also covered in some disgusting translucent substance. "Go on, take it. You're there."

Cedric turned and looked at the cup, which bathed his pale face in a warm golden glow. He felt nothing for a moment, nothing but a deep longing to do as Harry said and pick it up. Claim the title of Triwizard Champion for himself. Claim glory for his neglected house, and for his family name. Harry was already famous right? He didn't need this to get anymore attention, Cedric gathered he didn't really want any attenion at all anyway. But that's not how it worked, not in his head. Cedric sighed and forced out the words painfully.

"You take it. You should win. That's twice you saved my neck in here."

"That's not how it's supposed to work," Harry said. "The one who reaches the cup first gets the points. That's you. I'm telling you, I'm not going to win any races on this leg."

Cedric forced his legs to move, away from the cup towards the spider. He shook his head. "No." he said firmly, his head now completely made up.

"Stop being noble," Harry snapped, annoyed. "Just take it, then we can get out of here."

"You told me about the dragons," Cedric told him. "I would've gone down in the first task if you hadn't told me what was coming."

"I had help on that too," Harry glared, pressing his tattered robes to his leg, trying to get the bleeding to stop now. "You helped me with the egg-we're square."

"I had help on the egg in the first place," Cedric said, throwing his words right back at him.

"We're still square," Harry insisted, trying to stand but only ended up paining himself more.

"You should've got more points on the second task, you stayed behind to get all the hostages. I should've done that." It was something that had bugged him to no end these last few months.

"I was the only one who was thick enough to take that song seriously!" the younger boy said bitterly. "Just take the cup!"

"No." Yeah Hufflepuff's can be stubborn too.

Cedric gingerly stepped past the spiders limp legs and joined Harry who watched him with a look that was less annoyed and pained and more understanding and respectful. He crossed his arms, "Go on." Harry glanced at the cup and back to Cedric a couple times, the longing Cedric had felt not to long ago apparent on his pale face. Then he to seemed to come to a decsion.

"Both of us." Harry's voice was firm.

"What?"

"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it."

"You-you sure?" Cedric asked letting his arms hang limp at his sides now.

"Yeah," Harry said. "Yeah . . . we've helped each other out, haven't we? We both got here. Let's just take it together."

Denial spread through Cedric at first, no way could anyone be proposing such a proposterous idea, then delight fizzed through him and he beamed.

"You're on. Come here."

He grasped Harry firmly by the arm and helped the limping boy toward the glowing golden cup. Cedric reveled in the beautiful sight for a second then let his hand hover over one of the cups handles.

"On three right?" Harry began. "One-two-three-"

Both boys grabbed a handle. Cedric felt a familiar jerking sensation, his feet were lifting away from the ground, and he could not let go of the Cup; neither could Harry he saw. It just continued to pull them along through a tunnel-like apparition of swirling color and loud, whistling wind.

Then abruptly he slammed into the ground with an "Oof!" Cedric then sat up and put a hand to his temple.

"Where are we?" Harry asked. Cedric only shook his head and didn't speak, he scrambled to his feet and pulled Harry up too. Both of them looked around with curious eyes, they were definately not at Hogwarts anymore. Old crumbling gray gravestones dotted the weed-overgrown ground around them and the stars were blotted out in one spot of the sky by a small, shadowed church and pale yew tree. A hill rose to the velvety blue sky on their right, a house nestled at the top.

Cedric glanced at the cup, he knew what it was, the jerk behind the navel and the dark windy journey through nothingness was an all to familiar way of travel to a wizard.

"Did anyone tell _you _the cup was a Portkey?" he asked.

"Nope. Is this supposed to be part of the task?"

"I dunno." Cedric felt fear spreading out through his limbs, making them go cold. "Wands out, d'you reckon?"

"Yeah," Harry muttered still looking around, brow furrowed.

They pulled out their wands, Cedric clinging tightly to his as the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

"Someone's coming," Harry told him sharply, voice fearful.

**Squinting tensely through the darkness, they watched the figure drawing nearer, walking steadily toward them between the graves. Harry couldn't make out a face, but from the way it was walking and holding its arms, he could tell that it was carrying something. Whoever it was, he was short, and wearing a hooded cloak pulled up over his head to obscure his face. And - several paces nearer, the gap between them closing all the time - Harry saw that the thing in the persons arms looked like a baby… or was it merely a bundle of robes?**

Harry looked over at Cedric as though asking for an answer, Cedric merely gave him a quizzical look. The person stopped next to a large marble headstone, that was gleaming in the pale moonlight. A few seconds ticked by without anything happening. Then things happened in rapid succession, playing out a horrifying scene that would be that last one Cedric would see in his life.

Harry let out a yell of intense pain, covering his forehead with both hands, and letting his holly wand fall from his grip.

Cedric wasn't even able to ask him if he was all right before a clear, cold voice came from the bundle of blankets. A voice so terrifying that it paralyzed him. "_Kill the spare_!"

The cloaked figure slashed a white wooded wand, yew like the tree a few yards away, and shrieked, "_Avada Kedavra_!"

The last thing Cedric saw was a brigh flash of sickly green light that rushed towards him, and the last think he felt was an explosion of fear. He knew that spell, he knew what it did, and he didn't want to die. He was young, he had a girlfriend, and a loving family, and a whole year of schooling left. He didn't want to die. He opened his mouth to cry out but before he could the green light hit him, blasted him off of his feet with it's power, and when his body reached the ground there was no life left in it.

The love, kindness, bravery, loyalty, and strength that had once filled Cedric Diggory had been blown away by that spell, leaving behind an empty life-less shell that would never move again, think again, look at a loved one again. Cedric Diggory had been seventeen years old, in his sixth year of schooling, and was the pride and joy of all of Hufflepuff house. Now he was dead. His last thought had been, _I don't want to die_.

**So what do you think? I thought the ending was a bit weak but over all I'm proud of this fic. :) I don't know why but I seem to be good at writing in the POV's of people as they die. I did a fic like this for Mortal Instruments about when Jonathan kills Max Lightwood and I got surprisingly good responses for it. Will I get more reviews for this one? Well that's up to you (hint, hint.) I also have a poll up if you all would be so kind as to go vote on it? **

**And once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY POTTER AND JO ROWLING!**


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